


Peter Parker's 17th Birthday

by Spideyfan62



Series: Peter Parker's Senior Year Survival [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Awesome Michelle Jones, F/M, He Has Plans, Not Spider-Man: Far From Home Mid-Credits Scene Compliant, Peter Parker Turns 17, Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spideychelle, Then None Of Them Go Right, but it all turns out alright
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25204033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spideyfan62/pseuds/Spideyfan62
Summary: Peter opened his eyes, seeing the rays of morning sunlight cascading through his window and into his room. He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes a little, trying to get the sleep out of them. When he was finally awake enough, it suddenly hit him: today was his 17th birthday!
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Series: Peter Parker's Senior Year Survival [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1761355
Comments: 8
Kudos: 36





	Peter Parker's 17th Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is chronologically the first story in the series, taking place before Endangered Species. I will go in later on and rearrange the order so that it is properly reflected in the listings. But yes, this does take place in the Senior Year series.

Peter opened his eyes, seeing the rays of morning sunlight cascading through his window and into his room. He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes a little, trying to get the sleep out of them. When he was finally awake enough, it suddenly hit him: today was his 17th birthday! It was also a Saturday, so it meant he had the whole day to do what he wanted, and that's also when he remembered that he had forgot to set up any plans with Ned & M.J. He had been so preoccupied over the course of the last week, between senior year hitting him hard early on and some massive dude in body armor calling himself the Rhino LITERALLY hitting him hard (thankfully last night's victorious encounter had been the least painful). He decided it would be good to start off seeing May, so he shuffled out of bed, grabbing some clothes, including his favorite shirt, which had "If you believe in telekinesis, raise my hand" emblazoned in the center of it. He exited his room and went down the hall to the bathroom, where he proceeded to enjoy a good shower. 

As he stood there, letting the hot water run down his back (which was still a little sore from his encounter with the Rhino from the night before), he pondered how he wanted to spend his day. He never really did anything extravagant for his birthday, partly because he and May couldn't afford much, but also because he never felt the need to. He was usually content for him, May and Ned to spend as much of the day as they could together, usually occupying their time by watching movies, hanging out around Central Park, or just getting a pizza. When his birthday fell on a weekend day, such as today, it usually entailed all of those things. 

One thing he did know was that he still wanted to make a little time for Spider-Man, even today. He wouldn't be spending his usual daily time of swinging around the concrete jungles of the Manhattan, but he would at least do a quick once over of the city. It may be his birthday, but he knew he would still feel guilty later if he didn't do at least a brief patrol. He decided it would be best to do it earlier in the day, before Ned or M.J. got there, so he could focus the rest of his time on them and May. 

He suddenly realized he had spent far too much time in the shower as the water suddenly turned a much cooler temperature than what it had been, so he quickly shut the water off and grabbed a towel to dry himself off. After throwing his clothes on and making sure he was presentable in every way he could be, he exited the bathroom, fully anticipating to see May's smiling face greet him as he came in. 

Instead, Peter came in to an empty room. 

"May?" he said, but there was no answer. He strode into the living room, then towards the kitchen, where he found a note on the counter top. 

"Work Emergency. Had to go in. Be back as soon as possible. Happy birthday! P.S: your favorite muffins are keeping warm in the oven. Love you :)" 

Well, that was unexpected. Peter was disappointed, but he wasn't mad. He knew that May wouldn't leave him alone on his birthday, even for a little bit, unless there was a real emergency. Still, he couldn't help but frown as he stared down at the note for an extra few seconds after reading it. After a moment, he decided some of those muffins May mentioned might make him feel a little better. He walked over and opened the oven, and sure enough, the wonderful smell of fresh blueberry muffins filled his nostrils, causing a pleasant smile to form on his face. May was not the best cook, but she had put effort into learning how to make these for him a while back, and it had become his favorite birthday breakfast. 

Grabbing a glove, he them out of the oven. There were 24 of them, but he was still likely to eat most of them due to his accelerated metabolism, so he decided it best to just eat them out of the pan. He got some butter to add just for good measure, and went and sat down on the couch. Right before he was about to take his first bite, he heard his phone ding, indicating a text. He quickly grabbed it and smiled when he saw that it was Ned. His smile turned upside down when he read the text however: 

"Happy Birthday bro! Unfortunately, I will be unable to celebrate with you. I threw up like 6 times last night, and was still running a fever this morning. I tried to tell my mom it was no big deal, but you know how she is." 

Some birthday this was shaping up to be. Still, just as with May, Peter found himself unable to be upset at his friend. Clearly Ned had tried, but Peter was inclined to agree with his best bud's mom: staying home was the wisest choice. He promptly typed a reply: 

"Thanks. No worries bro; you take care of you, and we'll stuff ourselves full of pizza while watching Empire Strikes Back at a later date."

It took Ned less than a minute to respond: 

"Count on it!" 

A little frustrated by the situation as a whole, Peter tore through the muffins, and before he knew it, he had eaten every last one of them. He was rinsing out the pan and putting it in the dishwasher when he got another ding on his phone. He was a little nervous to look at it, but after a moment he decided there was no point in not knowing, so he opened it up to see a text from M.J: 

"Happy birthday dork." 

Peter smiled and even let out just the slightest chuckle upon reading the message. He quickly typed out a response" 

"Thanks; I had actually been meaning to ask if you wanted to come over later or something?" 

Peter walked back up to his room from the kitchen, intending to change into his Spider-Man suit to go out into the city for a little bit. As soon as he entered, he received another message from M.J: 

"Definitely, but it'll have to be around afternoon/evening. Have to make sure your present is just right." 

Intrigued, Peter eagerly typed out a response: 

"Ooh ooh, can I guess what it is!?" 

He had his red and black suit halfway on when he received her response:

"No, nerd, you'll just have to let the curiosity eat away at your brain all day ;)"

Peter let out a mild chuckle, shaking his head as he responded: 

"Okay, but I hope you know that you've really hyped it up now, just saying." 

He slipped his mask over his face to complete the suit before diving out of the open window into the city, firing out a web towards a nearby building. 

"HELLOOOOO NEEEW YORK!!" he called out as he swung off into the city. 

M.J. didn't panic at much, but she was in full on panic mode after reading Peter's most recent text: 

"Okay, but I hope you know you've really hyped it up now, just saying." 

M.J. laid back, slamming the back of her head into a pillow, groaning in frustration. The truth of the matter was that she still didn't have A CLUE what to get Peter for his birthday. She had scoured both local stores and the internet for ideas, but nothing seemed good enough. She looked at Star Wars collectibles, science pun t-shirts, microscopes, etc, but everything was either ruled out immediately due to expense of just deemed not good enough. 

She REEEALY wanted Peter's gift to be something special. She reached up towards the once broken black dahlia necklace that was currently resting on her chest, taking it and playing with it in her fingers. She couldn't take her eyes off the tiny piece of jewelry; she had worn it every day since Peter first gave it to her almost 2 months ago. The necklace represented so much about what made Peter so great to her. For starters, it had clearly been a planned out thing, even if he had later shared that her receiving it while on the run from attacking drones was not exactly what he had had in mind. He had then gone into detail about what his original plan had been, and her heart had practically melted at the sweet, thoughtful nature of it. 

The other thing it reminded her of was how Peter had clearly been paying attention to the things she talked about. He had known that the black dahlia was her favorite flower because of, well, the murder. 

More importantly, the necklace was a constant reminder that he liked her for HER. It wasn't because she had gotten a makeover and he all of a sudden thought she was pretty (although he did frequently mention how beautiful he thought she was), but she had won him over by being her normal self. She couldn't imagine there being any greater a feeling in the world than that. 

That was why his gift had to be special. She wanted to badly to give him something that conveyed everything she felt about him the same way the necklace conveyed what he thought about her. The problem was, M.J. was not exactly the best gift giver. Her and her mom would usually try and exchange gifts during Christmas (when she wasn't busy with work, that is), but that was different. Her mom was easy to buy for; getting her a Starbucks gift card could make anyone her best friend, as her mom practically LIVED off the stuff. Peter Parker was a whole other story; she had no intention of resorting to some dumb gift card. It had to be better than that. 

But what?

Before Peter knew it, he had been patrolling around the city for 3 hours already. There wasn't too much going on, so he had intermittently been texting both M.J. and May regarding the plan for later on. He was just about to head back towards the apartment when he spotted a truck below him in an alleyway, and he spotted a familiar tall, pale and burly figure get out of the car. 

Tombstone. 

Peter had already encountered this guy a couple of times, with mixed results. The first time they fought, the hulking figure had broken Peter's left arm, though thankfully he had gotten away before the drug lord could finish him off. The second time, however, Peter had learned from his mistakes, keeping his distance and using his webs to subdue, rather than try to overpower Tombstone. Unfortunately, there had not been enough evidence at the time to make anything stick, so the man once known as Lonnie Lincoln was still free. 

Peter watched as Tombstone entered the building he was perched on the wall of. He crept down the side and peaked the window just barely, which was enough for him to notice Tombstone go into an small office. Finding another way in through the ventilation system, Peter silently made his way inside of the building, and it didn't take long before he was right above the office area Tombstone had walked into. The man was just standing there, looking over something on a desk, though Peter wasn't at a good enough angle to see what it was. A phone then rang, and the man answered it. Peter tuned his super hearing to listen in. 

"Did the shipment come in alright?" Tombstone growled into the phone. 

"Yes sir boss; whole thing went off without a hitch," one of Tombstone's men answered. 

"Good. Head straight to 8th and Lincoln from there," Tombstone commanded. "That deal needs to happen." 

"Understood boss," the man replied, then hung up. Tombstone then turned to leave, and Peter decided it was now or never. He popped out of the vent, landing smoothly on his feet. Tombstone stopped at the doorway, not even bothering to turn around. 

"You know, Lonnie, you look like you've been putting on a little weight," Peter taunted, trying to goad his adversary from the get go in the hopes the man would do something foolish. 

Tombstone just let out a couple chuckles. "Well then, how about I get a little exercise in," he said, turning around to face Peter. 

"Sure thing man, however I can help." Peter just hoped that the "help" didn't involve any more broken bones on his part. 

Tombstone charged him, but Peter dived between the man's legs, firing two webs at the man as he went flying out of the room. Pulling tight, he launched Tombstone back into the more open area, slamming him to a wall. With his opponent having nearly unbreakable skin, Peter knew he wouldn't have to hold back as much. 

"Nice move," Tombstone said as he got back up to his feet. "You must've learned a few things." 

"You know, sometimes I pick up a thing or two here and there," Peter answered. 

"Good," Tombstone said, smiling a very toothy smile. "That will make this even more fun." 

Tombstone then grabbed a massive chain and began flinging it wildly. Peter narrowly dodged multiple swings of it before managing to fire a small bit of webbing at Tombstone's eyes, momentarily blinding him. Peter used this opportunity to move in close, throwing several punches and kicks at his enemy, causing the man to drop the chain. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Tombstone to get the webbing free from his face, and Peter quickly put some distance between them. 

Their battle raged on for hours, neither side showing any sign of slowing down, though the office itself was taking significant damage as each combatant was punched, kicked, or otherwise slammed into the walls, floor and ceiling of the building. Objects were thrown around and destroyed as well, until there was next to nothing left actually inside the building. However, Peter noticed Tombstone FINALLY showing just the slightest signs of slowing up, so he pressed his attack harder. Despite throwing almost everything he had at his opponent, he was not coming anywhere close to seriously hurting him (unbreakable skin and all), but he was gradually wearing him down. Finally, Peter let out one more full on assault, capped by a powerful right hook to Tombstone's face that sent the six foot seven inch giant of a man to the ground. Peter then proceeded to web him up very tightly. Tombstone struggled at first, but eventually came to realize it was useless. 

"Boy, you've developed quite the skill set. I could use someone like you on my crew," Tombstone admitted. It was strange for Peter to actually receive any sort of compliment from one of his foes, but Tombstone was no ordinary enemy. 

"That's sweet Lonnie, really, but I'm afraid I intend to remain a free agent for a while," Peter quipped. He then turned to leave, but one last question from Tombstone caught his attention. 

"What's your secret?" 

Peter paused, stroking his chin with his gloved hand before answering. 

"Blueberry muffins. Works wonders."

After he left, Peter called in an anonymous tip to the police about the deal going down between Tombstone's men and the potential buyers. Once he heard over the police broadcast that the deal had been stopped, Peter decided he'd head back for home. After about 15 minutes, he crawled into his bedroom window. He was just barely out of his suit when he heard a knock on the door. Quickly throwing back on his clothes from earlier in the day, he ran to the door, opening it swiftly. Next thing he knew, he was staring in the eyes of one Michele Jones, dressed in a modest floral dress not too dissimilar in style from the one she wore in Prague. She was wearing a very light jacket, her hair was down, and she was of course wearing the necklace. 

She looked amazing. 

After a moment of neither of them saying anything, Peter blushed and moved aside, gesturing for her to come in. She entered, and when Peter caught her eyes again after closing the door, he swore she looked nervous. He could see it in her eyes; some kind of uncertainty was evident in her expression. 

"Is everything alright?" Peter asked, trying not to sound too concerned. 

M.J. then quickly pulled out folded piece of paper from an inside jacket pocket. "Here," she said, holding the paper out for him to take, not completely making eye contact with him. Peter took the paper, finally meeting M.J.'s eyes briefly before looking down at the paper. 

It was a drawing, but not just of anything. It was a sketch of the two of them from the side, looking at each other. What really caught his attention though was the setting: they were surrounded by cars, some upside down, others on fire. 

It was London. 

It was a drawing of where they confessed their feelings for one another, and where their relationship had begun. 

"I'm sorry," he heard M.J. say. He looked at her, bewildered. 

"For what?" he asked. 

"I know it's not much," she started rambling, "it's not even really a gift, but I just didn't know what to get, and I'm really not good at this anyway, and I..." 

He stopped her in her tracks by grabbing her arm and pulling her into a kiss, trying to convey all the reassurance in the world within it. 

"M.J, I love it," he said once they separated it. 

"R...Really?" she said, finally allowing a smile. She looked like she might even have tears forming into her eyes. 

"Really," Peter said, smiling the most pleasant smile he had ever since that day. She smiled back, then this time she pulled him in for a kiss, both of them holding it for a good moment, the world around them ceasing to exist. 

"Happy birthday Peter," she said once they separated, her smile having grown very large by then. 

"It is," he assured her. 

They got out a puzzle and worked on it for a while until May finally got home, bringing some pizza with her. Peter ate, talked, and just hung out to his heart's content. When it was all said and done, with M.J. having went home and May having gone to bed, Peter picked up the picture M.J. had given him off the side table by the couch. Searching for just the right spot in his room, he decided to hang it on the closet door, so it would both the first and last thing he would see every night. 

As he went to bed, Peter fell asleep, dreaming of that day in London. 

His 17th birthday had been the best one yet.

**Author's Note:**

> With today being my birthday, I decided to take a break from the main story I'm working on to write something different. Hope you all like it! 
> 
> Update to my current story will be coming soon, so stay tuned! 
> 
> Stay safe and healthy everyone! 
> 
> "Brothers, I do not consider myself..." Philippians 3:13-14


End file.
